Exactly as it was before...

Well, things have not changed. Some of that is a good thing - I stopped in Mamou for a few minutes and got to see Madame Diallo (who's 7 months pregnant...her oldest daughter is 20 and she's only 35!) and my family and my yogurt guy. Everyone was happy to see me and it was amazing to see them - sadly I only had a couple minutes because of the bitchin' travel day I'd had.

I was told to be ready at 8am to make the 7 hour trip to Labe. I had all my stuff waiting outside, but the car didn't arrive until about 9:30. Then I found out that we were taking 4 other people with us and picking up a PC staff member and his wife in Mamou to take them up to Labe as well. Again, not that much of a surprise. The car was PACKED, though. So we load up and are ready to go by 10. Then we find out that the cashier's brother, one of the people hitching a FREE ride with us, needs to go get his bags from his house. Why didn't he bring them with him in the first place? No idea. I was pretty pissed, since I had been promised a few hours in Mamou, but because of all this I wouldn't have much time, since we aren't supposed to be on the road after 6:30. There are bandits (who people think are sent by the ministers who were fired to make people think that the new ministers aren't in control of the country) and driving is really scary in the dark.

So we get to Mamou, where we spend 20 minutes taking care of the PC staff member and his stuff, which required a complete shift of everything we had with us. Camilo and I finally left and walked to go visit everyone, since it was already 4 and we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. The car was going to meet us at my old house. By the time they arrived there we were pretty much done with our perfunctory hellos and goodbyes. No one could understand why I could go to Timbi Madina, where there was also violence during the strikes, but that I couldn't go to Mamou. I'm with them on this. It's absolutely stupid. When I asked about the reason, I was told that they'd evacuate me from Timbi before any problems started. Why that same reasoning doesn't apply to Mamou, I'm not sure. My theory is that the people in PC Washington and the embassy wanted to see some concrete changes made before reopening the program, regardless of how much sense they made. But I'm also bitter about it, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

We arrived in Labe at 8pm and Camilo and I ate pizza and drank wine, which improved our moods considerably. I also had a talk with the PC staff person who is helping with this and told him about how mad I was that we were on the road that late at night and how unacceptable that was, especially since it was because we were taking care of PC staff member's families' requests and not doing official business and I'm completely scared of driving in the dark here.

We went to Timbi yesterday, only to find out that my house is occupied by a family. The man of the house is on vacation, so they are supposed to move by tomorrow, but we'll have to see. Also, my latrine has no door, which is a bit awkward! And when I asked the official we were talking to to speak in French instead of Pulaar, he totally ignored me. It's never a good sign when people who speak French refuse to speak it, because it means he was telling Dioulde (PC staff) something that he didn't want me to know. I saw the inside of the house and it's pretty nice. Not nearly as gorgeous as my old one, but that's to be expected. I have a lot of cleaning to do, though. And right now it's full of other people's things, including the 3rd bedroom, which housed a huge quantity of potatoes! What the hell, right?

I realize that this entire email is a gigantic whine about what's happening, but it's Guinea and it should all be expected. That being said, I'm actually thrilled to be back. I know everything will get taken care of and school will start and I'll make friends no matter where I am, so it's all good. Sometimes you just need to get some complaining off your chest! My friend Rose is arriving soon from Burkina, where she transferred. Any my other friend Beth is coming in a couple days and will be relatively close to me, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

And my French isn't as bad as I thought. It's mostly coming back to me, I just need to expand my vocabulary so that I don't have to ask for "that thing there" when at the market and can just use the word for the thing I want!

Hopefully the next time I write I'll have a home. And I'm going to try and respond to everyone's emails quickly, but it's hard with such limited internet time. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and stories! Also, I did see the video of Britney at the VMAs and was thoroughly disappointed. Was she drugged up? She moved like she was underwater. My comeback in Guinea is going much better than her comeback in the US!